There has been a lot of talk about Baldwin County Local Amendment 1, which — if approved by the voters on Nov. 2 — will give the county’s legislative delegation the ability to create a countywide public corporation for financing stormwater management.

The need for such a corporation to work across the political boundaries of Baldwin County’s municipalities was recognized in 2008, when the county government and 12 of Baldwin County’s 13 municipalities passed resolutions supporting its creation.

The need for effective, coordinated management of stormwater runoff and its consequences is well understood in Baldwin County.

However, local governments and the county lack the dedicated financial resources to deal with this issue, often having to “rob Peter to pay Paul” when faced with an erosion, flooding or water quality issue.

The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program supports the passage of this local constitutional amendment. It will allow the legislative delegation and the citizens to fuse the best community ideas into creating a public corporation, designed by the people of Baldwin County, to finance on-the-ground capital improvements that stem further degradation of the county’s cherished water resources.

Stormwater runoff occurs when it rains. Hard surfaces like rooftops and pavement prevent water from naturally soaking into the ground, causing it to run downhill.

It can pick up debris, chemicals, dirt and other pollutants and flow into a storm sewer system or directly to a lake, stream, river, wetland or coastal water.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stormwater runoff is the No. 1 threat to the nation’s water quality.

By 1998, Americans could not swim in or eat fish from 40 percent of our nation’s waterways, often because of stormwater pollution. That was more than 10 years ago.

The Pew Ocean Commission report to the nation in 2003 estimated that runoff from our paved roads and parking areas carries petrochemical products equivalent to the Exxon Valdez oil spill into the nation’s waterways every eight months.

We are just now beginning to assess the full effect on Baldwin County from our nation’s largest offshore oil spill. No one can doubt the tremendous impact to our coastal economy. Recovery of some natural resource communities may take years.

Yet every day we continuously allow smaller but seriously damaging inputs of debris, petrochemicals, chemicals, dirt and other pollutants into our area waterways and coastal waters. Over time, these inputs can be just as serious a threat to our economy and natural resources as the pollution from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Baldwin County’s rapid growth is creating loads of stormwater runoff that natural infiltration into the ground cannot effectively handle. Projected population growth and increasing urbanization will only exacerbate the problem.

More than 5½ feet of rain falls on Baldwin County each year, hitting highly erodible soils and varying steep hills and low areas. This hard rain, coupled with increases in hard surfaces, has resulted in greater amounts of stormwater running untreated into the county’s waterways.

According to ADEM, more than 120 miles of Baldwin County’s water bodies are considered to be “impaired” due to large concentrations of pathogens or siltation caused by stormwater runoff, including D’Olive Creek, Joe’s Branch, Tiawasee Creek, Baker Branch, Fish River, Oyster Bay, Little Lagoon, Bon Secour Bay and Perdido Bay.

Not only is stormwater eroding stream banks, widening stream channels, depositing excessive sediment and altering natural streams and wetlands. It also is washing debris into these water bodies that can choke, suffocate or disable aquatic life such as ducks, fish, turtles, birds and vital vegetation.

On a personal scale, Baldwin County residents are increasingly faced with filing flood insurance claims due to property damage from flooding. Since 1978, Baldwin residents have filed more than $500 million in claims, according to FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.

To ensure that there is public participation in the development of any law that would affect the people of the county, the Baldwin County Watershed Coalition has been formed to support local communities in managing flooding, drainage and issues related to stormwater runoff while preserving and improving water quality and the use of Baldwin County’s water resources.

The coalition’s goals are to improve community health and safety, increase and enhance recreational opportunities, maintain property values and sustain the county’s economy.

The program that has been laid forth to accomplish that is multipronged:

** Building watershed stewardship through education.

** Coordinating existing regulations and developing consistent standards and criteria throughout the county.

** Undertaking on-the-ground projects that are prioritized by watershed and can achieve the greatest impacts on slowing the flow of stormwater.

The public corporation created by passage of Baldwin County Local Amendment 1 will not duplicate local services, nor will it have any regulatory functions.

In fact, the enabling amendment that was passed in 2008 allowing the people of Baldwin County to vote on this amendment requires that at least 80 percent of the revenues collected by the public corporation be used to fund on-the-ground projects that will help us address the deleterious impacts of stormwater runoff. This limitation ensures that the corporation will not become an overstaffed bureaucracy.

Editor’s note: For more information, go to www.baldwin countywatershedcoalition.org. Also, public meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Foley Civic Center and 6 p.m. Oct. 19 at Daphne City Hall.

Roberta Swann is director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and David W. Yeager is a past director of the organization. Send e-mail to rswann@mobilebaynep.com.